British Pub Etiquette?
 

It's my understanding that 'ladies' should not ask for a 'pint' in a pub - that it's uncouth and should order only a half pint at a time. True? Was true or still is? I realize, from watching Coronation Street, that perhaps women are more likely to order a mixed drink but if they like a beer what's the etiquette? Just curious.

I drank many pints while living and working in London and have near heard it was uncouth for a lady to drink pints.

Hi P,

On our various visits to England we have seen what appeared to be respectable women drinking pints.

((I))

That's what i thought. I got the idea from years ago when i led bike trips thru England and we were told more than once that 'ladies should only order half pints' - the gals on our trips ignored that advice, which perhaps could have been jesting. But it's one of those things that lingers in your mind and you wonder if it's true or not. Guess not at least now.

ira hit the nail on the head. Respectable women often do drink pints. Ladies do not.

The female/pint issue is still alive in some places. Quite recently the barmaid in a pub in Hull confused both my daughter and me by asking daughter if she wanted her pint in two glasses.

Michael

Surely the days of the discrete half-lager-and-lime or shandy are over? Are there truly pubs/barmaids that distinguish between ladies and women?

< British Pub Etiquette? >

Don't spill anyone else's pint

alanRow,

<i>Don't spill anyone else's pint</i>

These days that often has more to do with personal safety than etiquette.
;-)
Michael

&quot;It comes in PINTS !?!&quot;

J_Correa,

Yes. <u>Imperial</u> pints.

Michael

&lt; These days that often has more to do with personal safety than etiquette. &gt;

Personal safety is one of the reasons etiquette evolved

Imperial pints, too, (20fl.oz.)requiring frequent trips to the loo!

This is probably more thatn you want to know, but the Social Issues Research Centre has a site that will give you everything you need to know about surviving the British Pub scent. The URL for this well written guide is:

http://www.sirc.org/publik/pub.html

Hoist one for me!

:-)

I guess I am not a lady then since I drink my beer by the liter ;)

My mother told me that the expression used in her world (just post war) was &quot;what would you like a half of?&quot;

J_Correa, I got it :)

Why do Americans have a different word for the international unit known as the &quot;litre&quot; or is the American &quot;liter&quot;, like the American &quot;gallon&quot; smaller than the real thing?

centre=center
theatre=theater (though now vogue for both centre and theatre in US)
litre=liter

why do Brits use the French word for litre?

re often is er in American - why? But litre=liter fits the pattern.

do Brits say metre? no i think meter, like Yanks.

No. In the UK, meter= what you measure things with, like an electricity meter, and metre=36.39 inches

I thought it was 39.37&quot;.

Michael

39.36. He just reversed the digits. Easily done if you're British and over 40.

In American bars that attract a potentially volatile clientele they don't sell beer in bottles or use glass glasses - only cans and plastic.

Are there pubs that only serve beer in plastic glasses or is throwing a mug or bottle in UK pubs a rare event? Just curious.

Well, I'm English and over 60 (and not to argue over a hundredth of an inch but it's 39.3700787, give or take).
:-)
Michael

I'll have to go to Paris, where the original metre is in the Arts et Metiers Museum i think and measure it.

Are you calling my Primary 2 teacher a liar, Michael?

Sheila,

Not me - Google. ;-)

I can't help myself, there are actually,
39.37007874015748031496062992125984 inches in a meter or metre (whatever)!

Looks like you're outnumbered, Shiela.

Grrrr!

I seem to recall at least one long thread on this topic within the past year or so.

Bob, where on earth do you live that you have or know bars that won't even serve people beer in glasses because it's such a dive and all the patrons are commonly drunk and fight? I'm not saying this doesn't exist, I'm sure you may frequent such places -- but I have never been in one and you are making it sound like this is really common in the US.


Even the only bar in my small hometown (which is definitely not upscale and has the usual crowd that you would expect in a small Midwestern town where it is about the only bar and a lot of the crowd are what is called working class, driving pickups, working in the mills or factories, etc) does not do this. They looked at me in surprise the last time I asked for a glass rather than a bottle because they usually just hand out bottles, but I like something a little nicer -- but they serve beer both in bottles and glass mugs.

I just think you are giving a really distorted view of the US.

Well i didn't mean to imply that this was the norm---that said i go to three local bars where this is the policy and i think many clubs may also have that policy.

I think if you get out of the Belt Way there is a differet world out there.

But no 99% of bars don't have that policy - i guess i go to low-class bars, but they do exist in more numbers than you perhaps realize.

I have seen plenty of bars which serve in plastic cups on their busy nights. In my experience these are regular bars - not dives - which attract a big crowd of people in their 20s both with or without a dance floor. Places people go generally just to drink - not so much to eat. This is both in DC but more so outside of DC where I used to live in Pa.

Yes like the place i went even years ago in my college town - had two tiers and inevitably during the night someone who throw a bottle or glass down onto the floor below - so they went to plastic, which wouldn't harm or maim as much. Places packed with young folk out to get drunk and then some of them lose their head. No not only dives. And i wonder, seeing how British youths like to get so pissed if they don't have the same problems.